Back when there were only two people that read this blog (one being my friend "PJ" and the other being my imaginary friend), I wrote a post about something embarrassing that happened to me as a result of my dingdang hearing loss. Embarrassing stuff always happens as a result of that, but this one was really bad. If I had it more on the ball, I wouldn't be repeating this post and would be offering you something new like The Top 5 Vacation Spots For Families That Love Danger and Impromptu Gang Fights (stay tuned for that later!), but, you see, my house is literally tore up from the floor up. This girlfriend needs to get back to throwing away and wiping off lots of stuff all over the house. So, I leave you with this post. The words in orange print are totally TRUE, but I might have exaggerated a teeny-tiny bit on the actual narrative.

The background of this post is that I used to test children's developmental language skills via standardized measures. When I sat down with this sweet three-year old girl for testing, at some point I asked her what she was learning in preschool. This was our conversation. Kind of.

Me: So, what are you learning about in preschool right now?

The 3-year-old: PARENTS.

Parents, huh? Oh, my! Parents are great, aren't they? Parents DO understand. Don't listen to Will Smith! You don't know Will? Anyway, I am a parent myself and I HAVE parents and they have parents. Some people have 2 sets of parents...

Sweet little girl: I said PARIS.

Paris! Oh my goodness! I am SOOO sorry about that misunderstanding. I just LOVE Paris! The only place I have been to outside of North America was Paris. My husband took me there in April 1999. It was wonderful! We had a hideous lamp shaped like the Eiffel tower for a while. The Eiffel tower... Did you know that when I went up that tower for the first time I had a stomach virus? I was crouched in the corner of the elevator as it made it's ascent to the top...

Sweet little girl's mom: E...Ex...Excuse me, miss. She said PARROTS.

"Well, don't I feel dumb! Knock me over the head, why don't you? Someone is going a little cuckoo, huh? Cuckoo! Cuckoo! That's me! One big cuckoo-head! Wow! Okay, parrots. I think PARROTS are a more appropriate topic for children to learn about. I was really snoring when she said "parents" and then I thought "Paris" was so random. What about America? I'm PROUD to be an American where I least I know I'm free, right? Call me Mrs. Greenwood! And I won't forget the men who died and gave that right to me [I'm standing at this point with my hand over my heart and violently swaying back and forth with my eyes closed and my mouth gaping open as I belt out the words]. Wow, look at me go. I just love America, but I also love parrots. I always wanted one but we got parakeets instead. A family friend kicked one over once and gave it a heart attack. Poor little thing died. Hello! Hello! [mocking a parrot's voice while bobbing my head forward quickly like a big, talking, colorful bird]. Polly want a cracker? Polly want a cracker? Hello! Hello! [imagine me heartily laughing at my horrible im-bird-anation while Sweet Little Girl's Mom blankly stares at me]."

Isn't that just pathetic? PATHETIC! But, yeah, that chain of misunderstood words really happened. No one put hearing aids in my stocking this year, so I will probably have a few more stories for you like this one in 2012, unless I get that inner ear upgrade. I'm going to Sears tomorrow to see if they have anything along those lines on sale.